{"id":1589822,"date":"2026-01-27T10:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1589822"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:34:25","slug":"livro-do-professor-da-uncc-sobre-partidarios-judeus-durante-o-holocausto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/livro-do-professor-da-uncc-sobre-partidarios-judeus-durante-o-holocausto\/","title":{"rendered":"Livro do professor da UNCC sobre partid\u00e1rios judeus durante o Holocausto"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The unlikely story of a Jewish engineer and musician from Ukraine<\/a> who became a World War II guerilla war hero \u2014 and the discovery of resistance songs he left behind \u2014 is the latest subject of a book by a UNC Charlotte professor.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

The book by musicology professor James Grymes<\/a> was released on Tuesday, Jan. 27, to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day<\/a>. What\u2019s more, you can hear that music next month in Charlotte, including songs that have not been heard publicly since they were written in the midst of the Holocaust over 80 years ago.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Grymes\u2019 book, \u201cPartisan Song:<\/a> A Holocaust Story of Resilience, Resistance, and Revenge,\u201d focuses on Moshe \u201cUncle Misha\u201d Gildenman, a civil engineer and musician from the tiny village of Korets, Ukraine. Gildenman led one of the most successful partisan units to help liberate Ukraine from Nazi control during WWII.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Partisan resistance fighters in WWII, civilians or former military members who were not part of the regular armed forces of the Allies, used guerilla tactics to fight Nazis behind enemy lines.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Moshe
Moshe Gildenman uniformizado, usando sua Ordem da Estrela Vermelha e Ordem da Guerra Patri\u00f3tica, medalhas de 2\u00aa classe, ca. 1945. Cortesia de Yousef ‘Seffi’ Hanegb<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

The music that animated Gildenman\u2019s life and that of his fellow partisans is also at the heart of Grymes\u2019 new book.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Two nights of storytelling and music inspired by Grymes\u2019 research will take place in the next couple of months. Grymes will share selections from his new book and the University Chorale of UNC Charlotte<\/a> will perform songs in Yiddish and Russian \u2014 including two pieces Gildenman wrote from the ghetto and forest urging others to take up arms against the Nazis.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Grymes reconstructed those works and arranged other popular war songs for the chorale to perform.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

The first concert takes place Feb. 26 in Charlotte at Temple Beth El.<\/a> The event is free; advanced registration is required.<\/a> The second concert is on March 9 at the Center for Jewish History<\/a> in New York City.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Grymes spoke to The Charlotte Observer recently about Gildenman, \u201cPartisan Song\u201d and how the book\u2019s themes of hope and perseverance during the darkest of times continue to resonate.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"O
O professor da UNC Charlotte, Jay Grymes, escreveu \u201cPartisan Song\u201d sobre Moshe Gildenman da Ucr\u00e2nia, um m\u00fasico que formou uma unidade partid\u00e1ria de sucesso durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@charlotteobserver.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Who was Moshe Gildenman?<\/h2>\n

[–><\/p>\n

For most of his life, Gildenman (1898-1958) was a pacifist and civic leader in Korets. He wrote operettas and musicals for the local theater group, and conducted the band and orchestra at the village\u2019s Jewish school.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

He had never even picked up a weapon before the Nazis invaded his homeland in 1941<\/a>. Then, on a single day in May 1942, the Nazis murdered 2,200 Jews in his village, including Gildenman\u2019s wife and daughter.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Convinced his own days were numbered, Gildenman vowed revenge.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"A
A fam\u00edlia Gildenman (Simcha, Golda, Moshe, Feigela), meados da d\u00e9cada de 1930. Cortesia de Yousef \u201cSeffi\u201d Hanegbi<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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A few months later, Gildenman managed to escape the ghetto and headed into the forest with a small group of people, including his son and nephew. When they left, the dozen partisans only had one revolver, five bullets and a butcher\u2019s knife between them.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Um
Um ataque de um destacamento de guerrilheiros sovi\u00e9ticos durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. Yakov Davidson Museu Casa dos Combatentes do Gueto, Israel\/Arquivo de Fotos<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Over time, though, they acquired more weapons through ambushes and attacks. The group grew slightly but gained an outsized reputation because of their successful attacks.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Eventually, the members joined up with Soviet partisans. Gildenman was given his own detachment to command, which became known as Uncle Misha\u2019s Jewish Group. Although the name and separate unit were more likely signs of antisemitism than respect, the group wore the distinction as a badge of honor, Grymes said.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Gildenman\u2019s story, and that of the men, women and children partisans he led during the war are at the center of Grymes\u2019 book. They went on more than 150 combat missions involving sabotage, espionage, propaganda and, later, strategic rebuilding of bridges for the Soviet Army on the way to Berlin.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Partid\u00e1rios
Partid\u00e1rios sovi\u00e9ticos montando uma emboscada na neve na Segunda Guerra Mundial. Yakov Davidson Museu Casa dos Combatentes do Gueto, Israel\/Arquivo de Fotos<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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The book is also a look at the enduring power of music: how it inspired and connected Gildenman and the partisans in the forest, how they used it as a form of propaganda and what it signified as an expression of their culture.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Grymes took the title from a famous Jewish resistance song written in Yiddish in 1943 in the Polish ghetto of Vilna, \u201cZog nit keyn mol<\/a>.\u201d It means \u201cNever Say That You Are Walking the Final Road\u201d and became known as \u201cThe Partisan Song,\u201d an anthem of perseverance and defiance for Jews across Europe.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

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[–><\/p>\n

Discovering Gildenman and the music behind his story<\/h2>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Grymes\u2019 first book also dealt with Jews and music during the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\u201cViolins of Hope<\/a>: Violins of the Holocaust \u2014 Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind\u2019s Darkest Hour\u201d traced six stories of violins and their owners, and what they went through during the Holocaust. It won a National Jewish Book Award when it came out in 2014.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

While doing research for \u201cViolins of Hope\u201d Grymes came across Gildenman. That part of the book involved a 12-year-old boy named Motele Schlein.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Motele, whose parents were murdered by the Nazis, escaped into the forest and joined a group of Jewish partisans. A gifted musician, he also turned out to be an excellent saboteur.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Motele infiltrated a Nazi officers\u2019 club, where he was hired to play the violin. After discovering a vacant store room in the basement, he started hiding his violin there following his performances and leaving with his empty violin case. Then each day he\u2019d return, having filled it with a few pounds of explosives.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Uma
Uma unidade partid\u00e1ria durante um ataque da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Museu Casa dos Combatentes do Gueto, Israel\/Arquivo de Fotos<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Bit by bit he assembled a bomb, just as the partisans had taught him. When the time was right, Motele hit the detonator, ran out of the building and the bomb exploded.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

As Grymes researched Motele\u2019s story, he discovered more about the partisan group and its commander, Gildenman.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\u201cMotele had become something of a little brother to Gildenman\u2019s son, Simcha, and something of a son to Moshe,\u201d Grymes said.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

When Motele died in combat, Gildenman and his son kept the violin. Gildenman\u2019s grandson ultimately brought it to Israeli instrument maker Amnon Weinstein<\/a>, founder of the Violins of Hope<\/a> collection. (Motele\u2019s violin is now on permanent display at Yad Vashem<\/a>, Israel\u2019s Holocaust memorial and museum, right near one of Schindler\u2019s Lists<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Moshe
Moshe Gildenman como partid\u00e1rio, in\u00edcio de 1943. Museu Casa dos Combatentes do Gueto, Israel\/Arquivo de Fotos<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really fascinated by Gildenman\u2019s story,\u201d said Grymes, who spent the next decade collecting more research on him. But it wasn\u2019t until 2022, when he stumbled across a cryptic online reference to a \u201cSongbook of Misha\u201d that Grymes really started to see what he could bring to the project.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Misha is a common nickname in Russia and Eastern Europe, so Grymes knew the chances were slim, but he decided to pursue the lead anyway. He contacted Yad Vashem, and the museum confirmed that the book existed and had belonged to Gildenman.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

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[–><\/p>\n

The importance of song and cultural survival<\/h2>\n

[–><\/p>\n

The book of workers\u2019 songs in Yiddish was among the few items Gildenman took with him into the forest. He had it throughout his partisan experience, and kept it with him for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

The book is in terrible shape, Grymes said. It\u2019s missing pages, had been folded and crudely stitched back together.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Partid\u00e1rios
Partid\u00e1rios sovi\u00e9ticos na Segunda Guerra Mundial cantando durante uma pausa nos combates. Yakov Davidson Museu Casa dos Combatentes do Gueto, Israel\/Arquivo de Fotos<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

It ended up in Yad Vashem along with a notebook of war songs scrawled in various handwriting that Gildenman\u2019s son, Simcha, collected near the end of the war. Gildenman\u2019s grandson had donated the items to the museum.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Their existence convinced Grymes this was a story he was meant to tell. Through them, Grymes gained deeper insight into who this man was and what he valued.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Esses
Esses guerrilheiros sovi\u00e9ticos come\u00e7aram a dan\u00e7ar durante o intervalo dos combates. Yakov Davidson Museu Casa dos Combatentes do Gueto, Israel\/Arquivo de Fotos<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

The Nazis were known to use a common tactic of warfare, Grymes said, of not just killing people but destroying their culture. That\u2019s why they would attack museums, steal artwork, destroy artifacts.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\u201cFor (Gildenman), that songbook was something he really wanted to hold on to. \u2026 It wasn\u2019t just a mission to stay alive but also, he knew \u2026 he and his fellow Jewish partisans, if they survived their culture would survive with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"A
A estudante da UNC Charlotte, Reem Nour, ensaia no campus com o University Chorale. O grupo apresentar\u00e1 m\u00fasicas em i\u00eddiche e russo relacionadas ao livro \u201cPartisan Song\u201d. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@charlotteobserver.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Among the songs students will perform this winter are two that Gildenman wrote during the war. One urged Jews to join the partisans and head to the forest to fight; the other was for non-Jewish, Russian-speaking Poles urging them to join the partisans.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Only the lyrics survived, so Grymes has arranged them with music from other popular songs of the era. It was common for partisans to pair their lyrics with well-known melodies.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Grymes said that to his knowledge, no one has sung the songs since 1943.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Jason
Jason Dungee, diretor de atividades corais, lidera um coro na UNC Charlotte. Eles estavam ensaiando para uma pr\u00f3xima apresenta\u00e7\u00e3o de m\u00fasicas relacionadas ao novo livro, \u201cPartisan Song\u201d. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@charlotteobserver.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

A man of peace chronicled his fight for survival<\/h2>\n

[–><\/p>\n

For most of his life, Gildenman was a man of peace, a goal he worked toward after the war, too.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

He was a Bundist<\/a>, a member of a Socialist workers\u2019 organization that advocated for a multicultural, peaceful future that would include Jews in Eastern Europe. He was also part of a group when he lived in Poland for a few years that was trying to find a way to create a single state in Israel that encompassed both Jews and Palestinians.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

When Gildenman saw the victorious countries of WWII erecting monuments, writing books and making movies about great war heroes, he didn\u2019t see any tales of Jewish heroism. So Gildenman committed himself to chronicling the stories of the Jews who fought alongside him.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"Moshe
Moshe Gildenman, ao centro, de gravata, em sua f\u00e1brica de cimento com seus funcion\u00e1rios e filhos no in\u00edcio da d\u00e9cada de 1930. Cortesia de Yousef \u201cSeffi\u201d Hanegbi<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

He published four books, including one about Motele and another about female Jewish partisans.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Grymes said Gildenman was not a Zionist but ended up spending the last years of his life in Israel because there simply was no home for him left in Europe.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\u201cHe became in that brief period (of the war) a man of revenge and pretty ruthless \u2026 There are some stories he told about his own actions that I hesitated to write about because they were so gruesome. But \u2026 you can\u2019t pick and choose what\u2019s based on convenience. This is part of the history, and you\u2019d be doing history and him a disservice by trying to filter it or trying to make it nicer.\u201d<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

The book arrives at a time of surging antisemitism, with antisemitic incidents increasing by 893%<\/a> across the U.S. between 2014-2024, according to an Anti-Defamation League report.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Mississippi\u2019s oldest synagogue<\/a> was fire-bombed, and a little over a week ago, threatening signs displaying a swastika and a noose were found at Shalom Park<\/a>, home to multiple Jewish organizations in Charlotte.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

When \u201cViolins of Hope\u201d came out in 20124, he didn\u2019t receive much push back. But Grymes, who is not Jewish, has noticed a significant uptick in hate speech directed at his social media posts.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\u201cJust the little bit I\u2019ve done so far with \u2018Partisan Song,\u2019 there\u2019s a lot of antisemitic comments that end up on my posts,\u201d Grymes said.<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

The crux of the book, he said, remains how destructive the Nazi regime was. And while it was a different time and environment, \u201cI still think we learn from history\u2026 The more we learn from history, the better chance we have of not repeating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[–><\/p>\n

\n
\"O
O professor da UNC Charlotte, Jay Grymes, escreveu \u201cCan\u00e7\u00e3o Partid\u00e1ria\u201d sobre Moshe Gildenman da Ucr\u00e2nia, um m\u00fasico e engenheiro judeu que formou uma unidade partid\u00e1ria de sucesso durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@charlotteobserver.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

More arts coverage<\/h2>\n

[–><\/p>\n

Want to see more stories like this? Sign up here<\/a> for our free, award-winning \u201cInside Charlotte Arts\u201d newsletter: charlotteobserver.com\/newsletters. You can join our Facebook group, \u201cInside Charlotte Arts,\u201d by going here<\/a>: facebook.com\/groups\/insidecharlottearts. And all of our 2025-26 Fall Arts Guide story can be found here<\/a>: charlotteobserver.com\/topics\/charlotte-fall-arts-guide.<\/p>\n

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\n
Hist\u00f3rias relacionadas de Charlotte Observer<\/h5>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

‘O artigo anterior pode incluir informa\u00e7\u00f5es divulgadas por terceiros’ <\/em><\/p>\n

‘Alguns detalhes deste artigo foram extra\u00eddos da seguinte fonte www.charlotteobserver.com’ <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 O artigo anterior foi obtido e traduzido do site internacional da celebrity.land \u2019 Source Link <\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The unlikely story of a Jewish engineer and musician from Ukraine who became a World War II guerilla war hero \u2014 and the discovery of resistance songs he left behind \u2014 is the latest subject of a book by a UNC Charlotte professor. [–> The book by musicology professor James Grymes was released on Tuesday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1589823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1589822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1589822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1589824,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589822\/revisions\/1589824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1589823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1589822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1589822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1589822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}